WPIAL track and field team championships: Butler boys, North Allegheny girls take 3A titles
The chant was unmistakable.
"B-Dubs! B-Dubs! B-Dubs!"
It gained steam even before the winner of the WPIAL Class 3A boys team track and field championship was announced at West Mifflin's Titan Stadium on Tuesday evening - the Butler boys knew, and so, huddled up near the north end zone, they chanted.
"B-Dubs! B-Dubs! B-Dubs!"
Two years ago, when Butler won its 11th boys WPIAL team title, they couldn't get into a restaurant for a celebratory meal. This time around, they decided to preemptively make reservations at a Buffalo Wild Wings to accommodate the large party. And walking away from the field toward the bus following Butler's 12th gold medal - two behind North Allegheny for the most in WPIAL history - longtime coach Mike Seybert pumped his fists and shouted that "B-Dubs!" rallying cry.
"Every single week they were hungry," Seybert said of his team, no Buffalo Wild Wings-related pun intended. "They wanted to get better and better and better. They want to get faster, and up at the state meet they want to do damage there."
Tuesday's meet came down to the very last event - the pole vault. Butler's Jason Wick cleared 14 feet 1 inch to place second, and the Golden Tornado defeated Seneca Valley, 76-74, for the title. Norwin and Hempfield finished third and fourth.
Last year's 4x400 relay quartet set the WPIAL championship record, blazing to a 3:17.40 finish. They didn't quite match that this year, but still combined for an event-winning 3:22.40, beating the second-place squad by nearly three seconds.
Butler dominated the 4x800 to open the action on the track, and despite the high-fives and smiles afterward, a few of them insisted, "the job's not finished."
Kevin Shriver took the 100-meter race in a personal-best 10.97 seconds and followed it up with a win in the 200. Brendan Eicher added another pair of individual wins for Butler, besting the field in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races.
"They're special, and they know the ceiling's higher," Seybert said. "As a coach that's been around a lot, it's my job to motivate them. But those guys motivate me."
On the girls side, North Allegheny, like Butler, got back to its winning ways after a one-year hiatus.
The Tigers earned their fourth team championship since 2022 to tie the WPIAL record of 14 all time. They impressed in the field events as Avery Ruffus won the triple jump, Lindsay Breneman won the pole vault, Audrey Maxwell won the discus throw, Taylor Neese won the shot put and Emma Neese and Amara Daugherty took first and second in the javelin.
"Most things went the way we planned," coach John Neff said. "You plan it out over and over - it's almost like having a perfect bracket. We had a wrench thrown in a couple little places, but one girl falters, another girl picks up the slack."
Freshman Samantha Strelick impressed in the 3,200 meters, finishing with a time of 11:16.80 that was nearly 10 seconds ahead of second place. Also winning races for North Allegheny were Kendra Smith in the 100 and Maya Currie in the 400.
"This is one of the most fun groups I've had, and I've done this now for 27 years," Neff said. "It's just been a super year. There's a great cohesiveness."
Class 2A
Make it a three-peat for the Quaker Valley boys.
The Quakers swept Greensburg Central Catholic, North Catholic and Riverview on Tuesday night at Peters Township's Confluence Financial Partners Stadium for their third WPIAL team title in a row.
Junior Jonah Montagnese dazzled in the distance events, winning all three of the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter races. He also ran a leg in the 4x800 relay. Last year, Montagnese became the school's first Class 2A state champion in cross country and followed that with a 1,600-meter win in the PIAA meet.
Quaker Valley was aiming for a fifth-straight WPIAL team title on the girls side - which only Butler and Hempfield have ever accomplished - but came up short, 77-73, to North Catholic.
The win for North Catholic marks the program's first in boys or girls track and field.
With team champions crowned, the next meet on the calendar is the WPIAL individual championships next Wednesday, May 13, at the William C. Lennox Track at Slippery Rock.
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This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 11:17 PM.